


listen to the stars

by StarSpeckledSmoke



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Confused Lance (Voltron), Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fix-It of Sorts, Gay Keith (Voltron), Graphic Violence, Kosmo - Freeform, M/M, Multi, Original Characters - Freeform, Pining Keith (Voltron), Poisoning, Post Season 4, Reunions, Temporary Amnesia, angsty paladins, eventual getting together, figuring out feelings, goes until the end, someone doesn't die
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:54:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24418450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarSpeckledSmoke/pseuds/StarSpeckledSmoke
Summary: “You’re not bringing anything?”Keith looks down at himself and then back at the room. “No, I guess not.” He steps out into the hall, the door closing being him. “I don’t think I’ll really be needing anything.”“Oh.”Lance has a put-out look on his face now but he raises his hand and places it firmly on Keith’s shoulder. “Well, stay safe, man.”Keith raises his eyebrows at him, ignoring the tingle of his skin beneath Lance’s hand. “Are you really that worried about me?” he teases, not sure whether or not he should be offended.***Basically just a fun rewrite of everything starting after the beginningish of season 4 (technically not really until the beginning of season 6).
Relationships: Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Allura/Lotor (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 56





	1. being away from you

**Author's Note:**

> Welp, this is the first fic that I've actually progressed enough in to post for and I’m honestly not 100% sure where I’m going with it, so I’m always open to any suggestions. I thought I would post the first chapter for now and see how it goes. It’s pretty much just a random rewrite starting up when Keith leaves to join the Blade. The timeline before that is all the same, pretty much, but will be diverging more after the first couple chapters.  
> I’m also one of those people who like to listen to or get inspired by specific songs for scenes and stuff, so I’ll add those in each time if there are any. I usually just go by the sound and feel of the songs, but it’s nice when the lyrics fit too.  
> For this one it’s:  
> Angel of Small Death and the Codeine Scene – Hozier  
> Stranger Ways – Anberlin

Keith sits on the edge of his bed, looking around at the few belongings he has scattered about his room. He came back here to pack, figuring he’ll be away for a while, but when he entered the room a few minutes ago, he realized there isn’t really anything here worth bringing. The Blade of Marmora is always on the move, going from one mission to the next. All he really needs is the suit, and he’s already wearing that. So, he gives the sparse room one last once-over, eyes lingering on the red jacket hanging by the door. The thought of taking it with him somehow makes all of this feel much too final.

It’s not that he _wants_ to go; he just knows it’s the best course of action right now, for both the team and himself. He isn’t meant to pilot the black lion; that’s all Shiro, as was proved today when his brother finally reconnected with Black, even if it did make Keith’s heart clench with a strange sort of sadness. It hurts knowing he hadn’t been there for his team when they needed him. 

Still, he tells himself it’s for the best.

Keith knows his pulling away would have led to this eventually, he just hadn’t expected it to affect him so much. But he decided he would do more good by officially joining the Blade. Getting information on Lotor and figuring out what the galra are really up to is what Keith feels is most important right now, and that’s what he’s going to do. 

And maybe… maybe he can learn more about his mother while he’s with them, too. He has been fighting to admit that reason, feeling selfish for it after he had caused such a scene back when Pidge tried leaving to find her brother and father, and now he’s basically doing the same thing. Knowing that Shiro is here to replace him makes the guilt lessen just a little.

Keith is brought out of his thoughts by a quiet knock on the door. He rises to his feet as it slides open, revealing a solemn-looking Lance; a sight that has become a more common occurrence lately.

“Hey,” Lance says with a tentative smile, stepping through the doorway like they hang out in each other’s rooms on a daily basis.

The scene before him is uncomfortably familiar, making Keith think back to the last time Lance had come to him like this. 

“What’s up?” he asks, swallowing back the unease. 

That time, Lance had voiced his thoughts about needing to step down as a paladin. Keith had immediately shot the idea down, hating the forlorn look in his teammate’s eyes. He still can’t even begin to understand how Lance could ever think he was the one who needed to go, especially since it was so obviously _him_ that was slowly getting pushed out, pushing himself out. It was part of the reason he was here now, a bigger part than he would ever admit to the others. He can’t stand that self-doubt that Lance always seems to carry with him, but Keith knew then that there was something he could do about it. It was a win-win, really.

Part of him also can’t help but be glad he is able to get out of those awful shows Coran has been brewing up lately. He understands why Allura wants to make Voltron’s presence known to those they had saved—he does. But he also can’t help feeling like it’s a waste of time. He has to be doing _more._ More than just parading around from planet to planet, showing civilizations that, yes, Voltron does exist and is here to protect them. As if they aren’t busy enough fighting Zarkon’s forces at every turn.

If he’s really honest with himself, he would know another reason wants to leave is Shiro. He’s glad that his brother is back and safe now, but having him around the past couple of weeks has made being the black paladin feel… awkward. 

Keith turns his attention back to the boy standing before him, realizing the other has still yet to respond.

“Lance?”

Lance seems to snap out of whatever odd Lance-thing he was caught up in, eyes widening slightly as he focuses back on Keith, red tinting high on his cheeks. “Right, um…” he starts, seeming at a loss for words. He fidgets a little, looking off toward the bed. “I just…” He takes a deep breath before looking back up at the room’s owner. 

Keith feels a nervousness spread through him under the attention of the piercing blue gaze but keeps his face neutral. 

“Be careful out there, okay?” Lance finally says, unsure smile back in place.

Keith blinks a few times, not understanding why it’s suddenly so hard to breathe. Lance looks like he wants to say more, but when the other boy just stands there, watching, Keith quickly nods and says, “Yeah, of course.”

“Right, yeah. That-that’s good,” Lance stumbles over his words, hand coming up to scratch the back of his head. 

Keith doesn’t know why he is acting so weird, but he hopes Lance isn’t still thinking he should be the one to leave Voltron. He begins to worry he had done something to make Lance uncomfortable when the other steps back through the door.

“I’ll, um, just leave you to pack up then,” Lance mumbles, beginning to turn away.

“I think I’m good,” Keith says, moving to follow him out.

Lance turns back to him with a look of surprise, and what Keith almost thinks looks a little like concern. 

“You’re not bringing anything?”

Keith looks down at himself and then back at the room. “No, I guess not.” He steps out into the hall, the door closing being him. “I don’t think I’ll really be needing anything.”

“Oh.”

Lance has a put-out look on his face now but he raises his hand and places it firmly on Keith’s shoulder. “Well, stay safe, man.”

Keith raises his eyebrows at him, ignoring the tingle of his skin beneath Lance’s hand. “Are you really that worried about me?” he teases, not sure whether or not he should be offended.

“What?” Lance pulls his hand back with a funny look. “No, I-I know you’ll be fine. I’m just saying…” Lance sends him a little glare as he pauses. “Just think things through before you do them. You have a habit of being too reckless.”

Keith isn’t sure how to respond. He knows he can be a little too quick to decide things; it’s just another reason why he doesn’t think he is meant to lead. He’s too impulsive, going for what he sees as the logical choice in any given situation without consulting his heart on the matter. Or his teammates, apparently. 

But that had quickly changed when Lance stepped up to the position of right-hand man—literally. Anytime Keith strayed a little too far off track, Lance was there to pull him back. He honestly wasn’t sure he could have managed to lead the team past that first fight with Lotor if he hadn’t had Lance to guide him through it. There have even been times that Keith thought Lance would make a much better black paladin than him, and in those times, he would curse the lion’s choice of a pilot. 

But Lance and the others said they believed in him and his ability to lead them, so he decided he at least needed to try, for them and for Shiro.

And then, their lost leader had returned.

Keith had been beyond relieved to have his brother back, but the return of the original black paladin left him feeling unsure. Shiro had easily fallen back into his role as a leader, even though he technically wasn’t the black paladin anymore, and claimed he was perfectly happy with Keith keeping the position. 

Yet, just when Keith had started getting used to calling the shots, Shiro began overriding almost every decision he made. He wasn’t sure how to continue leading with Shiro at his side. It started to feel wrong to continue piloting Black when the older man so clearly fits the role better than Keith did. Though the others never said it outright, he got the feeling that they thought it too. It just feels natural to want to listen to Shiro. He was their true leader, the real reason they would someday succeed in defeating Zarkon and saving the universe. 

He had a feeling Lance was thinking the same thing long before he came to Keith’s room that night. The way he had watched Allura when she talked about Blue, her eyes lighting up with excitement—there was no way Lance would take that from her. 

Keith was in a similar position. He could never take Red away from Lance, could never take _Voltron_ from him. He didn’t want to see the look on Lance’s face if Red one day decided to block him out for Keith again. Despite Red claiming the former blue paladin as her own, Keith knows he’s been struggling to bond with her. His bond with Blue had seemed instantaneous, a quick knock that none of them had expected to work and she let him right in.

Keith also knew that if he was the one to leave, he at least will be going somewhere where he can still be of use in this war, while he was certain Lance would have just gotten a one-way ticket back to Earth, far, far away from the rest of them.

“I’ll be fine,” Keith finally assures his teammate, and he silently hopes he’s telling the truth. It will be strange not having his friends around all the time. He has grown used to them living together in the big Altean spaceship, almost like a family. 

And it’s then that he realizes he will miss it. Hunk’s cooking experiments that he was sometimes subjected to (and not all of them went well). Pidge and her technological babble that he understands probably about as much as Lance does, not that he will ever admit to that. Lance’s teasing and absurd attempts at keeping their “rivalry” going, though it has calmed down a bit since the change-around. Coran and Allura with their weird, yet amusing, Altean quirks. And Shiro… Well Shiro had been like a brother to him for years already. 

It’s all more than he ever would have imagined he could have.

And he knew he was going to lose it someday, too. He expected as much, fought to not get too attached, focusing more on the mission at hand (saving the universe) but that clearly hadn’t worked out how he planned; they all squirmed their way into his heart, burrowing inside like chipmunks settling underground for the winter.

Lance doesn’t seem like he completely believes him, but he soon gives one of his warm Lance smiles that never fails to make Keith’s face feel too hot when directed right at him.

“You guys be careful, too,” Keith tells him, stepping back to head toward the hangar, Marmora mask shifting into place.

“Sure thing, samurai.”

Keith feels his lips quirk as he turns away and raises a hand in goodbye.

He doesn’t see any of them for quite a while after that.

Months later, Keith finds himself nearly having a heart attack—and not for the first time that day, either. As if the battle at Naxzela hadn’t been strenuous enough, now _Lotor_ is suddenly on their side (or so he claims)? After all that time, he had spent with the Blade trying to track him down and figure out what he was planning he just appears out of nowhere to save the day. And Keith had been about to…

He had almost died. _Sacrificed_ himself. 

And he would probably do it again if he had to. At the time, he thought it was the only way to save everyone from getting blown up, so, of course he would readily give up his own life. If Lotor hadn’t flown in to shoot the cruiser and then Keith had failed… There was no way Voltron would have made it out of there in time, and he would have been left behind anyway.

Not only that, but they are now keeping the half-galran prince aboard the castleship with Allura and the other paladins. Sure, he is technically their prisoner, but still… Keith doesn’t like the idea of him being so close to the center of Voltron.

And neither does Lance if the look on the other boy’s face is anything to go by. Allura and Shiro are currently discussing whether or not they should believe Lotor’s claim of friendly intentions.

Keith stands awkwardly off to the side with the other three paladins, frowning as the scene he had walked into plays through his head again. 

Only Lance, Hunk, and Pidge had been there so far, Shiro and Allura still setting Lotor up in his weird glass prison. 

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Lance had growled upon seeing him enter the bridge, a fire in his eyes that Keith had never seen before. At that moment he truly looked like he was meant to be the red paladin. 

Though his voice was harsh and lined with anger, his actions spoke of something else entirely. 

Keith felt his breath knocked out of him as Lance and Pidge barreled into him, Hunk coming up to wrap his arms around the three of them. 

“Sorry?” he breathed, confused at the sudden show of emotion. He hadn’t been quite sure he wasn’t actually in trouble for something, despite the group hug.

Pidge hit her fist against his arm, though there was no real force behind it. “Matt told me what you did. Or almost did.”

_Oh._ He hadn’t expected them to find out so quickly. Or at all, really. 

“I told you _not_ to do anything stupid and reckless,” Lance muttered, pulling back after Hunk stepped away. All of their warmth left Keith in a rush, and he had to fight with himself to not reach out for it again. 

Keith mulled over what to say in his head before finally deciding honesty would probably be best right then.

“You were all going to die if I didn’t,” he explained, keeping his voice flat. 

None of them seemed able to come up with a response to that, but they didn’t have to as Shiro, Allura, and Coran entered.

The three seemed to notice the uncomfortable tension in the room but chose to ignore it for now and discuss the bigger problem at hand: Lotor.

“I think we should talk to him,” Shiro is saying now; Keith missed the first part of what he said in regards to the prince. “Why would he come all this way to save us when the empire was so close to taking us down?” A shiver runs down Keith’s spine at the truth of the comment. It had been much too close. 

“Uh, an ulterior motive?” Lance volunteers.

Shiro shoots him a look and Lance turns his eyes away with his lips pressed together. 

“How can we believe a word he says?” Allura argues in that same voice she had used to address Keith back when she first learned he was part galra. 

Shiro shakes his head. “I’m not saying we have to trust him, but we should at least listen to what he has to say.”

“Yeah, I think I’m with Shiro on this one,” Hunk adds. “Shouldn’t we give him the benefit of the doubt? I mean, he’s already locked up, right?”

“I suppose…” Allura looks around at each of them, silently asking for their thoughts on the matter. 

“I don’t trust Lotor,” Keith says bluntly. 

Pidge shrugs. “If you think it’s a good idea, Princess, then we should at least give it a shot.” 

“I don’t know…” Lance frowns, scratching at the side of his face. “Something just doesn’t feel right about it.”

Keith wishes they would listen to Lance, knowing from experience that in a lot of cases the red paladin’s instincts are actually right. He has come a long way from getting tricked into being cuffed to a space tree. But on the other hand, what are their other options? Kill him? Let him go? It sure seems like the two might be one and the same, what with how Zarkon seems to want his son’s head on a pike.

In the end, they decide to speak to Lotor, but keep an eye out for any tricks. Keith has to get back to Kolivan, but he waits for the others to finish up before leaving.

He says his goodbyes to Shiro (who gives him one of his familiar older brother hugs) and the two Alteans before turning to follow Pidge and Hunk out of the room, acutely aware of Lance at his side as they make their way down the hall. When they reach the bay where he had landed his pod—not the damaged one from the battle, he had at least managed to switch ships before coming here—Hunk and Pidge give him more hugs before scurrying off to clean up and go to bed, apparently deciding to let him off a little easy for the almost-suicide mission. 

And that leaves him alone. 

With Lance.

_Again._

“Will you at least take this with you this time?”

Keith starts at the grim look and hint of aggressiveness in Lance’s voice. He looks down at what the other is holding out to him—some kind of device; small, thin, and dark like a slab of slate.

“What is it?” Keith asks, taking it in his hand, surprised at how light it is. He turns it over, revealing a shiny black screen on the other side. 

Lance reaches out to hit a button at the top and the device lights up. The background photo is one of the team that Keith had grudgingly let them all take before he left to join the Blade.

“Pidge designed it,” Lance explains, tapping a button on the screen. “It’s like a cell phone, kinda, but one that can send messages through space. A space-phone.” He grins at the term.

Keith looks up at him curiously, turning the phone over in a gloved hand.

“She made one for all of us,” Lance adds, frowning at Keith’s confusion, and then grabs the device, tapping some buttons on the screen and holding it out to him again. “See, it has all of ours programmed into it, so we can talk to you whenever and wherever we are.”

“Oh,” Keith blinks. 

Lance still doesn’t seem very pleased with his reaction, and Keith isn’t sure what else to say. 

“Just… don’t disappear for weeks at a time again, okay? I know you’re busy and all with important Blade stuff, but we’d all actually like to hear from you from time to time.” Lance frowns at him for another moment before breaking into one of his charming grins.

Keith nods, not sure if he is even able to speak properly at the moment. _Why is it always Lance that the team seems to choose to talk to him like this?_ he wonders as he makes his way to his pod after they say their goodbyes, feeling a little like when he was having trouble accepting the black lion’s choice of having him become her paladin.

Despite his promise, Keith doesn’t end up using the device until a couple of weeks later when he notices a light flashing at the top of it on his way back to the Marmora base where Kolivan is currently waiting.

Lance. 

Keith stares down at the message, biting the inside of his cheek to stop the smile fighting to take form.

_Lance: you still alive?_

_Keith: yes_

_Lance: you know, I gave you the phone so you would actually talk to us and not disappear_

Keith can’t tell if he is joking or actually upset by his absence. 

_Keith: sorry, I’ve been busy_

The truth is, Keith has wanted to talk to them. He misses his teammates, but the desire to go back and be with them is such a new feeling; being alone had never felt so _wrong_ before. He wasn’t sure how to go about starting a conversation, often hoping one of them would be the first to do so. But a week went by and no messages came. 

A few quintants ago he had taken it out, staring down at the names of his friends, wondering what he could say. “Hey, what’s up guys” somehow felt too casual, like he hadn’t been the one to leave them. So, he said nothing and tucked it back into his suit. 

Keith doesn’t know what else to say and worriedly thinks the conversation might end there, but Lance quickly assures him it’s fine and then starts going on and on about all the things they have been up to while he’s been gone since they hadn’t really had much of a chance to talk last time they were all together. Keith is grateful for the opportunity to finally catch up, smiling wistfully at all the things that have happened without him. 

Lance is currently complaining about Lotor, who has been annoyingly helpful lately with all his tips on which galra bases would be best to take out and exactly how to do so. It is now well into the night, or at least the time that Keith knows the paladins usually slept during.

_Keith: why are you still awake? it’s late_

_Lance: yeah yeah, i’m going to bed soon. i wanna hear about what you’ve been up to next time tho, kay?_

Keith glances back to where his fellow Blades are resting on their bunks, trying to think if there is really anything worth telling him about. Nothing comes to mind, but the thought of making plans to talk to the other boy again wins out.

_Keith: sure_

_Lance: cool :) goodnight samurai_

_Keith: night Lance_

Unfortunately, he once again doesn’t end up talking to Lance for what feels like weeks. He had received a few messages from Pidge, but the timing was never right, and he only noticed them on his way to and from mission destinations, which was sometimes even quintants after they had been sent. He would try his best to answer in time, but often just ended up giving short replies when he could. The conversations never lasted long.

And then the news of Zarkon’s death comes and spreads like wildfire throughout the universe. It has barely been two quintants when the message comes late into the “night”.

_Lance: did you hear the news?_

_Keith: of course_

After a moment of debate, he asks the question that has been nagging at him since he heard the news.

_Keith: what the hell happened?_

_Are you guys okay?_ Keith’s mind added. _How the hell did you guys end up fighting_ Zarkon _on your own?_ He hadn’t even known what was happening until it was all over.

He knows now that Lotor had been the one to kill the Galran Emperor, but that’s about as much as Kolivan was able to tell him until they heard more from the paladins themselves. From the look the Blade commander had given him when he told him the news, Keith hadn’t done a good job of hiding the fear and guilt of not being there to help. They had gone up against Zarkon again, and though he knew they were just as capable without him, he had a distinct feeling that he had let them down somehow. 

Lance explains how they had received a message from Zarkon, claiming to want to trade Sam Holt for his son, how they had all argued about what to do about it before finally deciding to make the exchange. Of course, it was just a trap. It was _Zarkon_ they were making a deal with, after all. But Lotor managed to fight against his father, and win, though with some help from the paladins themselves.

_Lance: lotor has been walking around the castle all willy nilly like he’s all buddy-buddy with us already. its really weird_

_Keith: he’s walking around free?_

_Lance: yeah, hes officially not considered a prisoner anymore. it was even allura who decided on it. shiro too. they actually had a bit of a fight earlier. its like watching parents argue sometimes._

_Keith: about what?_

_Lance: well… the only reason lotor was able to fight against zarkon was cuz shiro secretly gave him his bayard before making the trade for pidge’s dad_

_Keith: he what?!_

_Lance: yeah that was kinda our reaction too. i mean, i guess he’s not ALL bad but i still dont trust him. like, come on. no one who is willing to trick people into going to some alternate reality to get a magic comet for them can really be considered a good guy right? not to mention he did just KILL his own dad!! allura sure seems to have fallen for his princely charm fast tho._

Keith bristles at the last comment. _Of course_ Lance is more concerned with the fact that Allura might be interested in the galra prince than the fact that some dangerous psychopath is now freely walking the halls of the castleship with them. He quickly buries that bitter feeling before he can think about it too much.

_Keith: no, I don’t trust him either. something still feels off about him._

_Lance: wow really?_

_Keith: what?_

_Lance: you actually agreeing with me on something_

_Keith: shut up sharpshooter_

Keith had typed the self-proclaimed nickname Lance had insisted on so many times before without realizing it and he winces at the expected reaction from the other boy.

_Lance: HAH! i knew it would catch on eventually!!_

_Keith: don’t get used to it_

_Lance: hey you never told me about what you’ve been up to_

Keith frowns at the sudden change in subject.

_Keith: there’s not much to tell, really_

_Lance: ohh you mean its all top secret blade stuff, I gotcha_

Keith rolls his eyes.

A message from Kolivan pops up on the ship’s dashboard, the galran’s expression as flat as usual as he greets him. Another mission.

_Keith: gotta go, mission._

_Lance: oh yeah sure. talk to you later buddy_

Keith doesn’t get to see them after the incident at the Kral Zera, and before he knows it, a few months have gone by.

He’s sitting in the co-pilot seat next to Krolia—his mom, he still can’t believe it—when he notices the device flashing for the first time in weeks. He feels a twinge of guilt, knowing Lance probably isn’t too happy with him for disappearing again for so long. Not that he had heard from him, either, as the weeks ticked by into months. 

He and his mom have settled in for the journey back to Kolivan after escaping Ranveig’s base with an unspoken agreement to rest and take it easy for the first part of the trip before they have their much-needed catch-up conversation. Keith still isn’t sure how to feel about it yet.

This time, what appears to be some sort of group chat pops up when he turns the phone on, a few pictures from Pidge being the only thing in it. They were sent earlier that quintant. 

Keith glances over at Krolia before slouching down and typing out a response.

_Keith: what is that?_

One of the pictures is of what appears to be a galra sentry holding Hunk in its arms, Pidge sitting cross-legged on its shoulder. Another is of that same sentry sitting in a big chair—wait, is that _Zarkon’s throne?_ —with Lance and Hunk posing on either side like in a poster for an action movie. The third is of the three paladins alone, Hunk on the throne and haphazardly dressed in the late emperor’s armor, and Pidge and Lance dressed in druid cloaks. The latter has one of those weird beak-like masks pushed up on his head as he gives one of his classic flirty winks at the camera. 

Keith moves on before he embarrasses himself for staring too long, but the last picture isn’t much better. The sentry again, with Pidge in the back and Lance up front, all mid-jump and posing dramatically. Keith chuckles quietly, earning a curious look from Krolia in the seat next to him. He will never admit to saving the last two to his device, though he knows Pidge can probably hack into it with her eyes closed.

A notification pops up then and Keith goes back to the chat screen.

_Lance: pidge and hunk reprogrammed a sentry to be fun_

_Hunk: it was awesome dude!!_

_Keith: why?_

_Pidge: For fun, what else?_

_Lance: oh right keith doesn’t know what fun is_

Keith scowls at the space-phone. 

_Keith: of course I know what fun is_

The chat goes quiet for a little while, and Keith can’t help but feel a little disappointed. He isn’t trying to start an argument, but Lance just always has to push him just enough to get him all riled up. 

The light blinks again just as he is about to put the phone away. Another picture. It’s from Pidge again, this time of the bridge on the castleship. Lotor and Allura are standing together looking at a hologram in the middle of the room, Lotor with a serious look on his face as he holds his hand up toward it, Allura beaming at him as though he had just told her he knew how to bring all the Alteans back. 

Lance is standing in the background, leaning back against the wall and glaring at the two. Well, pouting, really. Keith’s eyes widen at the black eye and bandages on his face.

_Keith: what happened??_

_Pidge: Our boy is jealous that Purple Prince is stealing all of the princess’s time_

_Lance: pidge! why’d you take that?! and i’m not jealous, they just don’t need to be standing that close…_

_Keith: I meant what happened to your face?_

_Pidge: Of course that’s what you would notice_

Keith narrows his eyes at the comment.

_Hunk: he played chicken with the robot_

_Lance: hey, at least i won that!_

_Pidge: Technically you didn’t… neither of you stopped_

_Lance: i was up against a giant fearless robot!! totally counts as a win!_

Keith chuckles as they argue for a few minutes before going quiet again, a feeling of longing spreading through him as he watches. He’s missed them more than usual lately, especially during those moments between missions where he was often left alone with nothing but his thoughts. He tries his best not to think about them too much but always seems to fail in the end. They certainly seem to be having fun without him, at least. 

Krolia retreats to the bunk in the back to rest when Keith offers to take the first lookout shift, not that they expect much to happen for the next few quintants. He stares out at the stars as they pass by, telling himself he isn’t waiting for the device to blink again. 

It never does.


	2. cold and empty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang goes to Oriande and Keith gets ready to leave for a mission with his mom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where it’s gonna start diverging a little more and not line up with the show’s timeline as much, though it’s still mostly the same for now. Next chapter will be where the major changes begin.  
> Songs are:  
> Blinding Lights – The Weekend  
> Old Friend - Elderbrook

“I mean, he is pretty for a galra,” Hunk comments casually as he and Pidge enter the castleship bridge, Lance following close behind and pressing lightly on his bruised eye.

“Yeah, well, Keith’s prettier,” Lance mumbles into his shoulder quietly enough that the others can’t hear, then balks at his own words.

“What was that, Lance?”

Lance straightens, turning back to Hunk and Pidge. “I- uh, just said that, um, why should looks matter when he’s obviously crazy, right?”

Pidge quirks an eyebrow at the obviously much longer comment but Hunk nods in agreement.

“No, I totally get what you’re saying. I think he’s a little sketchy still, too, sometimes. It’s just hard getting used to, like, being allied with the galra now, you know? Or, well, most of them. The good galra. Man, that’s weird, isn’t it?”

Lance shakes his head at Hunk’s babbling, glad his awkward comment has been brushed over, though his excuse still stands. 

He hadn’t liked the idea of Lotor staying at the ship with them when he was their prisoner, much less now as an _ally_. Despite the help he’s provided by giving them the information needed to take down certain galra bases, the guy is a total jerk, all cocky and prince-like and thinking he knows everything just because he’s, like, really old.

The three of them settle around Pidge’s station, chatting idly about the day’s events with the sentry. Lance listens to the two genius’s debate whether they can do the same to more sentries as a prank on the new emperor and checks his phone for the nth time to see if there was a reply to the group chat Pidge had started between them and Keith earlier. She had insisted that talking to the former paladin would cheer Lance up, though in her words it was more along the lines of “I’m sick of you moping around about Allura hanging out with Lotor all the time when it’s obvious you’re missing someone else” as she sent the pictures.

Lance had sputtered a moment, flailing his arms indignantly and denying every word. And then he proceeded to take out his own space-phone, checking it every few minutes. He isn’t sure why he’s so anxious now when all he’s felt toward the other boy lately has been hurt and frustration. 

It has been _months_ now since they have heard from Keith, not counting the video calls keeping Voltron and the Blade up to date on certain plans. After everything that happened at the Kral Zera, they had all decided they needed to start communicating a little more with each other for the more important things so nothing like that could happen again. 

Lance had felt like an idiot for not warning Keith about it, but how was he supposed to know that they were planning to sabotage the event, or that Shiro would sneak Lotor there?

Unfortunately, those calls are few and far between, and Keith rarely ever says anything past initial greetings, though Lance is positive that the other boy avoids looking at them every time. Lance had begun to wonder if maybe Keith didn’t like being a part of Voltron, or was it just _them_ he didn’t want to be around anymore? 

Lance had known Keith would be busy with missions and other cool Blade stuff when he left to join them, but it hasn’t made his silence hurt any less. He had been worried after the first few weeks of not hearing from the ex-paladin, even more so after Lance had gotten Pidge to make those space-phones for them to keep in touch. It had soon switched to annoyance and frustration. Did he really not care enough to want to talk to them still?

Or, maybe Keith thought that they didn’t want to talk to him. But that was stupid, right? Lance had made it pretty obvious about how concerned they were when they didn’t hear from him. He just can’t ever understand what goes through the other boy’s head.

The others had seemed upset by the loss of their friend for a little while, though Lance can’t help but feel it impacted him the most. A couple of weeks into their new alliance with Lotor, Lance realized it’s because he feels like a seventh wheel all over again. 

While he and Keith have never been what you would call best friends—or even just normal friends, really—the time with the other boy as their leader had given Lance a sense of purpose, one he turned out to be good at. Whenever Keith struggled with what choices to make during a mission, Lance was there to help him out, or even talk him down from a bad one.

And Keith listened. 

Every time.

Lance knew, even when Keith had been gone barely a few vargas, that he had somehow lost a part of himself too. Not in, like, a cheesy weird romantic way or anything, but his sense of purpose on the team had disappeared again. He felt more alone than ever before.

Allura had grown closer to Lotor pretty early on, bonding through their now mutual goals and sort of shared history, though Lance is pleased to know that his own relationship with the princess has changed for the better as well. 

After he accidentally triggered his bayard to shift into the Altean broadsword, Allura had offered to help him out with training from time to time. He even managed to get her to open up a little about her past and what it was like living on Altea. In turn, he would tell her stuff about Earth that she was always absolutely fascinated about. The look of excitement in her eyes always made him smile.

They have come a long way, and he hadn’t even needed all the cheesy pickup lines and flirting to get here with her.

But other than their occasional, yet enjoyable, training sessions, Allura has been spending a lot of time with the prince whenever he’s around. At least after the Kral Zera, they had begun to have less contact with him since he is now busier trying to run his broken empire and all.

Hunk and Pidge have also grown a lot closer, bonding through their seemingly endless conversations about technological stuff that hurts Lance’s head after just a few minutes. When they get into those sessions, Lance usually sneaks away to train on his own, or find Coran and help him out with whatever needs to be done on the ship.

And then there’s Shiro, who doesn’t really need him to help make hard choices. In fact, lately, he hasn’t seemed to want anyone’s help in making decisions, constantly arguing with Allura and the team about what they should be doing. Lance understands that Shiro has gone through a lot, and that kind of trauma definitely changes a person, but sometimes the way Shiro acts really worries him.

Like that one time they had managed to get to Voltron’s mindspace and he heard Shiro calling out to him. The other man had said he didn’t remember any of what happened when they were there, and Lance hadn’t pushed, but something in the red paladin’s gut twisted as he watched Shiro stare out into the distance. The look on his face then had been eerily… empty.

When their leader had first returned, it was pretty obvious right away that there were going to be some issues within their team. Keith and the older man had begun butting heads a lot, both of them now used to taking control of the situation at hand. 

Lance had noticed Keith beginning to back down, letting Shiro decide things for the team more and more. He hadn’t known what to do about it. Would Shiro want his spot as the black paladin back? And if that happened, would Keith want Red back, too?

Despite the struggle he has had bonding with Red over the months, he was starting to feel like they were coming to some kind of understanding and to be honest, he loved how fierce and quick to respond she was in battle, just like her previous paladin. 

Lance also knows he could never have taken Blue back from Allura, either. He could tell how much she loved being a paladin, and who’s to say Blue would have even taken him back, anyway? It was technically up to the lions to choose their own paladins, and Black had clearly chosen Shiro to pilot her once again. 

Happy as Lance was to have their old leader back, the red paladin personally believed Keith was doing a great job as the black paladin, if not better than his older counterpart. When he had told them his plan to join the Blade of Marmora that day, the whole team had been shocked. 

After the other boy had left, actually just _left_ , going who knows where on all kinds of dangerous missions without his team by his side to help, Lance hadn’t been able to get over the initial bout of guilt and worry. 

Had they pushed Keith away by letting Shiro lead again, even when he wasn’t the black paladin anymore? Lance had only taken Shiro’s side on a couple of things, but he had still been there by Keith’s side every step of the way.

Sure, Lance couldn’t really imagine why they _wouldn’t_ want Shiro to take on his original role on the team; he was a naturally gifted leader, after all, and the only reason Keith had taken his place was because he was captured. But it just hadn’t felt quite right. Shiro was different after being held captive by the galra _again_.

Lance spent a lot of nights staring at his space-phone, willing himself to just suck it up and message Keith. He’d done it before, shortly after all the Naxzela business, which still haunts Lance from time to time.

They had all thought they might not make it out of there alive in those last moments, though had he known what was going on at that battle cruiser, what Keith had been about to do to save all of them—

No, there’s no point in thinking about all that now. All it’s ever accomplished is to piss Lance off all over again; at the fact that Keith had been willing to sacrifice himself for them. Well, for everyone in the vicinity, really, but still. He had been so close to _dying_ , and they hadn’t even known about it until hours later when Pidge met up with her brother shortly after the battle.

And if Lotor hadn’t shown up to get rid of the cruiser’s shield…

Everyone always acts like Lance is the dumb one of their group—which, sure, he sometimes has moments he isn’t exactly proud of— but Keith is the real idiot, always jumping into the line of fire without a care in the universe. It’s stupid and never ceases to piss Lance off.

Lance had been totally ready to yell at their idiot of a teammate—he doesn’t care if the jerk wants to run off with a bunch of rebel galra, he is still part of their space family—and he had at least managed to start the little speech he’d been going over since the moment Matt had explained what happened on their side of the battle. 

But the moment he saw Keith walk through the doors to the bridge, he just needed to make sure that he really was alive and okay, needed to feel it for himself. 

Luckily the others had the same idea, and Lance was grateful he was at least spared that embarrassment. It would have been way too awkward if he had been the only one to rush over and tackle Keith in a deathly tight hug, though he knows he would have done it whether or not the other two had joined in.

The confused look on Keith’s face when Lance had given him the space-phone after pops into his head, like the other boy couldn’t fathom why they would want to keep in touch with him like he isn’t still a big part of the team—the family—they had formed since they shot off in an alien space lion all those phoebs ago. 

By the time Keith finally responds to Pidge’s pictures, they are only able to talk to him for a few minutes before Allura enters the bridge, Lotor trailing behind her, the two looking surprised to find the three of them there. 

“Since you’re already here, I might as well call Coran and Shiro down as well. There is something we all need to talk about,” Allura tells them in that regal princess voice she uses when going over plans for Voltron.

Coran and Shiro appear a few minutes later, the older Altean staring at her with wide eyes as she explains what she and Lotor have discovered. 

“Princess, Oriande is just a tale. There is no such thing,” Coran insists, eyeing Lotor like he is crazy for putting such ideas into her head.

“I thought so as well, Coran,” Allura explains, holding the small grey and glowing rock in her hands, “but, I feel there might be more to it than we know.”

Lotor steps forward. “Oriande is the birthplace of all Altean alchemy, the place where King Alfor learned the secrets that helped him create Voltron, and where Allura will master those same secrets so that my ships may enter the quintessence field.”

Lance snorts. “And what makes _you_ the authority on crazy Altean nonsense?” he drawls, jerking his thumb at the ginger beside him. “Coran knows more magical made up gobbly-gook than anyone I’ve ever met.” 

“Thank you, Lance,” Coran perks up at the “compliment”, hands on his hips as he eyes Lotor. “And I can assure you that King Alfor never mentioned anything to me about traveling to Oriande.”

Lotor goes on to explain what he has learned of the mystery world of legend over the years and Allura’s role in locating it. The smile on the princess’s face at Lotor’s words is one Lance has never seen before. She has never looked at _him_ that way, and he’s beginning to think she probably never will. 

“Aren’t you a little busy running your empire to take a magical vacation?” Hunk butts in, raising his hand like they’re back in class at the garrison.

Pidge sighs dejectedly. 

Lotor straightens, seeming a little annoyed by the question, though he continues to reason that he needs to open a path to the quintessence field in order for the Galra to become “peaceful”. Lance isn’t entirely sure that will ever be possible, but it’s a nice thought. The alien race has been conquering and destroying planets for nearly ten thousand years just to gather quintessence, and they do it without a second thought. He doesn’t think they will be able to just change their ways so suddenly, even if Lotor can offer them an alternative that doesn’t involve genocide and planet murder. Battle and chaos are too ingrained into them at this point, as they have all learned firsthand. 

Lance still isn’t sure if Lotor is trying to trick them into this with an ulterior motive they have yet to catch on to, or if he’s really just naïve enough to think this is a solid plan. He really hopes it’s the second, for all of their sakes. 

He can appreciate the prince’s desire for a viable alternative to turn things around. He’s glad they at least aren’t enemies anymore, for the most part. Their fights with him had been a major pain in the ass, and they had fought robeasts before. The problem was that Lotor was way smarter than all of those monsters put together.

“If this voyage is successful,” Allura begins, holding out the glowing rock in her hands, “the universe will finally be on the path toward peace.”

_Not Allura too_ , Lance thinks with a frown. She has to see that there was something fishy about all this, right? He glances over at Shiro, hoping their leader might offer some cautionary ideas, but all the other man says is, “Well, let’s find out where we’re going.”

The three younger paladins’ eyes widen, but they don’t say anything. 

Allura holds up the rock, a hologram of a section of space appearing with a bright yellow, funny-looking shaped world in the center. And, of course, it happens to be one of the most dangerous places Coran knows of. Allura pushes on anyway, despite Coran’s obvious wariness of the idea. 

As Coran works on setting their destination, Lance moves off to the side to lean back against the wall, his body still aching from his collision with the sentry earlier. Lotor and Allura continue looking at the hologram and talking softly to each other, the white-haired Altean smiling up at him as he studies the shapes in front of them intently. 

Hunk and Pidge go to their respective stations and Lance notices the smaller one has her space phone out again, a devious look on her face that has him quickly pulling his own device back out.

He shoots a glare at the green paladin, feeling betrayed. That wasn’t why he was staring at the two in the middle of the room, though it does annoy him almost as much as their lack of concern for Coran’s warnings about this place they’re heading to.

Lance feels a spark of warmth at Keith’s obvious concern for his injuries, though Pidge’s comment doesn’t go unnoticed. He tries not to think about her meaning behind it.  
“Perhaps we should all rest for a few vargas,” Allura suggests, dragging the other paladins’ attention back to her.

Shiro nods, arms crossed over his chest. “We don’t know what we could be walking into. It would be best for us to all be in top shape.”

“That would be best,” Coran agrees. “We won’t be able to wormhole directly near the area. It will take a bit to fly close enough.”

Lance begins to follow Hunk and Pidge out of the bridge but is stopped by the ginger Altean stepping up beside him. “I could help set you up in a cryo-pod, perhaps?”

Lance lifts his hand to lightly brush his bruised eye. “I’ll be fine, it’s nothing serious.”

“Nonsense, my boy. Top shape means no injuries where it can be helped,” Coran insists, motioning for Lance to follow. “It won’t take long. As you said, they're not too serious.”

Lance shrugs and follows the Altean to the infirmary. He’s probably right, anyway, even if he is tired and just wants to flop down in his bed.

“It’ll only be about fifteen doboshes,” Coran informs him after scanning over his injuries and configuring the pod's settings accordingly. “Would you like me to wait for you?”

“I think I’ll be good. You should go get some rest, too. I’m used to how these work by now.”

Coran gives him an odd look, but nods.

Lance smiles reassuringly before stepping toward the pod. He appreciates Coran’s concern. He’s grown closer to the Altean advisor over the past few months, the other becoming like a sort of weird space uncle to them, Lance especially. 

Right on the dot, Lance stumbles out of the cryo-pod a quarter-varga later and grabs his belongings before heading to his room. He takes a quick shower and grudgingly decides to forego his usual nightly skincare routine, flopping onto his bed heavily. He stares up at the ceiling for a while, going over the events of the day before reaching for his phone and bringing up a separate chat from their earlier one. 

He holds his phone above his head, thumbs hovering over the keyboard as the past few months of feeling alone and out of place settle in once again.

Turning the phone off with a sigh, he tosses it somewhere else on the bed and turns out the light.

***

Keith stares down at the screen of his phone, Pidge’s grinning face staring back up at him.

It’s the night before he and Krolia will be setting off for their next mission—an important one involving the information she had gathered while posted at Ranveig’s base. They’re planning to leave in a little over six vargas, setting a course for a dangerous area of space called the quantum abyss. It’s somewhere Keith has never heard of before, not even in any of Coran’s crazy stories he would tell them over meals.

From what his mom told him earlier, it seems like this will be one of their most deadly, and possibly even time consuming, missions yet.

But the results will be worth it. Hopefully.

Their goal is to track the strange quintessence that she had discovered on that ruined ship all those months ago back to its source and hopefully get some answers that could turn the tides of this everlasting war. Even with Zarkon finally dead, there are still many factions of galra set on taking control of the empire and universe.

Keith sighs and picks up the phone, setting it up against his knife on the small bedside table as he taps the button at the bottom and sits back. He might not be able to contact them for a long time by the sounds of it, and he can admit he’s been missing them more these past couple of weeks after their last short conversation.

He wonders if he will ever be able to go back with them after all this is over. If it ever ends, that is.

A small hologram screen slips into life above the device, revealing the green paladin. She looks a little shocked, brows shooting high into her hairline.

“I honestly wasn’t sure you would answer,” she admits with a wry grin.

Keith shrugs. “You caught me at a good time.” He pushes back the slight disappointment at it _only_ being Pidge on the holo-screen before him. Not only would it be nice to hear from and see the others as well, but he can also feel the awkwardness creeping in at the idea of a one-on-one conversation with Pidge. They have never really been friends, though he supposes they’re as close as you can be when you’ve been on a team of pilots that basically see into each other’s minds when forming a giant space robot. They just don’t have the same kind of comfortable connection that he has with Shiro, or even with Lance. 

“How is everyone?” he decides is a good start.

Pidge is sitting on what appears to be her lion’s metal paw, a discarded tablet in her lap. She glances somewhere off-screen and he wonders if the others are somewhere in the room behind the camera’s line of sight and have just yet to speak up.

“Everyone’s okay here. Did you hear about Oriande at all?”

Keith shakes his head, brows drawing together. Oriande? Did they discover something new? 

“Okay, well, basically it’s this freaky world hidden inside a white hole in the middle of the Patrulian Zone that’s somehow linked all the way back to ancient Altean alchemy. That’s what Lotor says anyway, and it seems to be true so far.”

“Who you talkin’ to? Oh, is it Keith!”

Hunk pops into view beside Pidge, squinting into the camera before pulling back with an excited look on his face.

“Heeeyy Keith, what’s up, buddy?”

Pidge nudges Hunk over so he falls back on the ground beside her lion’s paw.

“I was just catching him up on everything with Oriande,” she explains before Keith can say anything to the yellow paladin, though he does give a small wave.

“Ohh, yeah, yeah, we totally found it!” Hunk nods, shifting into his thinking face. “There was this graveyard of ships, and then a white hole—I mean, can you believe that? So cool. Anyway, Allura and Lotor traveled inside to do their magical Altean voodoo stuff, and Allura came out with new knowledge about how their alchemy works—but, really, it’s pretty much just magic—”

“HUNK! I was telling the story,” Pidge whines.

“Oh, my bad.” Hunk looks a bit crestfallen before perking back up again as Keith finally speaks up.

“Wait, Lotor didn’t come out?”

“Oh, no, he’s fine. He came back too, but didn’t get the same kind of approval or whatever from the big lion guardian.”

Keith’s head is beginning to spin a little with all the information being thrown his way. He honestly has no idea what they’re talking about.

“Allura said the place was guarded by this giant white lion entity that only allowed those with Altean DNA in. We couldn’t get in as Voltron.” Pidge pushes her glasses up her nose and stretches her shoulders from her previous hunched position as she continues. “I guess Lotor wasn’t considered worthy enough to learn anything there, though.”

“Probably because he’s only half-altean,” Hunk muses.

Keith frowns at that, wondering if it’s really something worth worrying about or just him being overly cautious. It’s been months since Naxzela, after all, and the new emperor of the Galra hasn’t done anything to cause suspicion. 

“So, you went to a hidden Altean world for knowledge about magic?”

“Well, I don’t think it’s an Altean world technically, but yes,” Pidge nods her head from side to side in a so-so fashion. “Lotor wants to find a way into the quintessence field to gain easy access for the Galra. He thinks if he can give them that, then they’ll turn away from their old war-ridden ways.” She doesn’t sound too convinced of her words, her lips turning down at the sides considering.

“That sounds…” Keith lets out a breath.

“Crazy?” Pidge offers with a knowing smirk.

Keith huffs a laugh. “Yeah, a bit. I’m not sure the Galra will be able to change their ways so easily after ten thousand years of war and destruction.” It was a nice idea in theory, but he has a hard time believing that might actually work, especially not for those who have already rejected Lotor’s rise to power.

“Now you sound like Lance.”

Keith smiles fondly.

“Speaking of broody, sword-wielding red paladins, how’ve you been doing with the Blade?”

Keith starts at the comment, his mind brushing right over the slight insult and focusing in on the other part.

“’Sword-wielding’?” 

A smirk slides across the girl’s face, though he senses a hint of concern in her honey-colored eyes. “What, he hasn’t told you yet?”

_Told him what?_ “No,” Keith mutters, hoping the bitter feeling in his chest doesn’t show through his voice. “We haven’t exactly talked in… a while.”

“Seriously?” The other grumbles and throws her hands up dramatically, Hunk snorting from the ground beside her as he tinkers with something off-screen. “Even after all that whining about wanting me to make a space version of a cell phone so you can talk whenever you want.”

“He _what_?”

Pidge expertly ignores his outburst and moves back to his original question.

“I wasn’t there when it happened, but I guess he was training one day and somehow unlocked a new weapon with his bayard. Allura says it’s an Altean broadsword, like her dad used to have.”

“She’s been helping him practice with it sometimes,” Hunk adds. “Must be a red paladin thing.”

Keith’s jaw tightens, a part of him wishing he had been there for that. He could have been helping the other boy learn how to fight with it, though he technically has never used a broadsword before. 

He shakes his head. Stupid idea, anyway. Lance would never want his help training with it over Allura’s.

“He’s actually been spending a lot of time training lately,” Pidge notes, and Keith can feel her steady gaze studying him through their virtual connection. “We’ve all been pretty busy with lion repairs and stuff with all the missions we’ve been going on lately, and I think he gets kinda lonely.”

“Lance” and “lonely” together in the same sentence isn’t really something Keith can imagine. The other boy is always so upbeat, enjoying the presence of his friends, always walking around with excitement in his eyes that never failed to get Keith riled up when the other challenged him at every turn. He’s the one they all depend on, the one they turn to when they need some cheering up when all hope seems lost.

Keith had been a little surprised by the look on Lance’s face in the last picture Pidge had sent in that group chat. Even with the black eye, Keith could tell the dark circle under the other one was from something other than the boy’s collision with the sentry. 

Hunk lets out a despondent sigh.

“I feel kinda bad, you know? Especially since he’s been so upset about Allura lately.”

“Yeah, like, to an extremely annoying extent,” Pidge snorts. “I feel bad too sometimes, but you know, Lance is… Lance.”

Keith doesn’t know, not in the same way Pidge seems to be trying to explain. So, what, Lance is just off on his own all the time training and pining after Allura? Keith almost wants to laugh at the irony of it. Lance is apparently taking over his old position as red paladin in more ways than one, becoming the lone wolf, hoping for a relationship that will probably never happen. Though it had certainly never been Allura that made Keith’s mouth run dry.

“Where is Lance, anyway?”

The two paladins shrug.

“I haven’t seen him since breakfast earlier,” Hunk remarks, rubbing the back of his neck, looking a little guilty.

“I can transfer you over to him,” Pidge offers.

Hunk nods, perking up again. “I bet talking to you will totally cheer him up!”

Keith almost declines the offer, but then remembers the reason he accepted this call in the first place and nods.

“It was good hearing from you, Keith.” Hunk gives him a wide smile.

“Yeah, don’t take so long to get in touch next time,” Pidge scolds as she taps something on her tablet, getting a little too close to the camera. “We get worried about you, you know.”

“Sorry,” Keith mumbles. “And, actually, the mission I’m about to go on… it might take a long time and I don’t think I’ll be able to receive any communications where we’re going.”

The two give him twin looks of concern.

“Nothing too dangerous,” he lies. “But we might have a lead on something big.” Anything that could lead to the creation of whatever thing was at Ranveig’s base can’t be good. 

Pidge eyes him a moment longer, her expression unreadable.

“Well, be careful, wherever you’re going, which I’m sure you can’t tell us or you probably would have already.”

Keith’s not so sure he isn’t allowed to tell them, but he doesn’t really want to, either. They have more important things to worry about right now.

“Don’t forget to call us as soon as you’re back, okay?”

Keith agrees and the screen goes dark as Pidge sends his call to Lance’s phone. Nerves twist every which way in his stomach as he waits in silence.

“Keith?”

The screen is still dark, but he hears Lance, surprise seeping into his voice.

Suddenly light flashes over the screen and then the image focuses to reveal a tired-looking Lance, hair still dripping from what was probably a post-training shower.

Keith swallows back his nerves and quirks his mouth to the side in an attempt of a friendly smile.

“Hey.”

Lance looks like he’s fighting between happiness and anger, which just kind of ends up in a disgruntled twist of his lips. Keith can’t blame him. He _has_ basically been blowing the guy off for months, even after promising to stay in touch. And with what he just learned from the other two, that probably hurt a lot more if Lance was alone all the time now.

He hasn’t meant to hurt him, or the others, but he thought having less contact with them was… easier.

“What’s up?”

Despite the fact that they’re lightyears away from each other, the room reeks of awkward tension, and Keith has to fight not to end the call then and there and just bury his face in his pillow.

“Uh, Pidge called,” the Blade explains. “I talked to her and Hunk for a bit, but you weren’t with them.”

“Yeah, she just sent me a message. Says you’re leaving for a long mission soon?”

Keith internally winces at the dull tone of the other boy’s voice and forces himself to nod on the outside. “Yeah, we finally have a lead on… something important.”

He regrets the hesitation and lack of explanation the moment he sees Lance’s expression transform into something even more closed off than before.

“Right.”

Keith sighs. “I guess I just wanted to talk to you guys one last time before I go. I won’t be able to send or receive communications once we’re there.”

The shift is sudden and Keith feels the slightest bit of relief at the worried expression now adorning Lance’s face.

“What do you mean? Where are you going?”

Although he hadn’t told the other two in hopes of keeping them from any unnecessary worry, he cracks at the panic lacing Lance’s words.

“We’ve been tracking this new form of quintessence that my—one of the Blade’s discovered while undercover.” He doesn’t really want to get into the whole thing about finding his mother right now. “The ship it was on passed through the quantum abyss, so we’re going there to find the source.”

“What’s the quantum abyss?”

Keith weighs his options, though he thinks his hesitation only makes Lance look even more unnerved. 

“You know I can just go look it up or ask Coran, right? You might as well just tell me.”

Keith sighs, his default response for the day. “It’s an unstable area of space, a system full of dark stars and neutron stars all orbiting each other,” Keith explains, trying to recall what his mother told him earlier. “It’s chaotic and time there can be… different, because of the effect they all have on gravitational waves.”

“Different how?” Lance prods cautiously.

“I’m not really sure.”

“And you’re going there?!”

Keith looks away, eyes narrowed. “We have to.”

“Keith…”

Said Blade closes his eyes and focuses on controlling his breathing and definitely _not_ looking at the expression most likely accompanying that distraught voice.

“I’ll be fine,” he insists. “This mission is important.”

“So are you.”

The words are so quiet, Keith almost isn’t sure he even heard them, but his eyes snap up to the holo-screen. Lance’s expression is unreadable, which is strange for someone that’s usually so expressive.

“I promise to call when I can,” he assures the boy on the other side who is now refusing to meet his eyes. He wants to ask him not to mention what he said to the others, but he can’t bring himself to put that burden on the other. 

“Yeah, you better,” Lance mutters, one corner of his mouth quirking up, and Keith is relieved to see a little bit of that old light is back in his eyes.


	3. and then there were four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now we’ll be getting away from the show plot and branching out into different stuff a little more. This chapter’s a bit shorter, but there’s more action (kind of). Sorry ahead of time. Lance is precious but imma hurt him a bit. Enjoy :)  
> Chapter vibe song:  
> Black Church – Dimension

The fight against time proved to be one of their most stressful battles yet, the team struggling to get the shield back in place before the radiation exposure hit. Lance isn’t really sure what happened or how long he was out, but it seems like everyone survived, so that’s good. 

His head is still fuzzy from the shock of the explosion and all he can remember of the past few minutes—hours? No, definitely just minutes—is emptiness.

Allura gives him a concerned smile as he presses a hand to his throbbing head.

“We should meet up with the others at the base,” she says quietly, a hand on his arm. “Are you sure you’re okay to move, Lance?”

“Yeah, I think I’m good.”

Allura looks him over again, her mouth a tight line, before nodding.

“Hey, Allura?” he calls before she can turn to leave Red’s cockpit.

The princess shifts her questioning gaze back to him and that fluttery feeling in his stomach he gets whenever she looks at him comes back. Either that, or he might actually be about to be sick. 

Lance sits up in his pilot chair and slides his legs around the side, surprised at the effort it takes to do so. “Uh, what happened exactly?” He peers up at her, chewing the inside of his cheek before continuing. “For a moment there, I thought- I thought I was…”

Her eyes turn sad as she looks at him.

“You were, Lance,” she murmurs. “It was only for a few doboshes and I was able to bring you back. If I had come any later, though, I am not so sure I would have been able to…”

“But you did,” Lance interjects. He doesn’t want her to feel sad or guilty over something that wasn’t her fault. He’s the one that shoved her out of the way to take the hit. And he would do it again in a heartbeat.

He pushes the new thoughts now swarming his mind away and grins at the alien princess. “Well, I’m glad I had you here. Really, Allura. Thank you.”

A blush tints her tanned cheeks as she nods. “Of course. I could never let anything happen to one of my teammates, either.” She turns with one last small smile and begins to jetpack back to Blue.

Lance grins again, this time to himself, feeling his heart swell at the fact that something he said made Allura blush. The lingering feelings in the back of his mind threaten to push forward now that he’s alone, but he fights to keep that creeping anxiety at bay for now and just enjoy this small success in his so far non-existent relationship with Allura. He was so sure he had completely lost her to Lotor at this point, but a blossom of hope begins to rise up in him again.

He pushes himself up, swaying on his feet a moment as his blood rushes, making him dizzy. He groans, putting a hand to his head. Despite what he had told Allura, he really does feel awful, though he supposes dying could do that to a person.

Dying…

He had _died_.

And Allura brought him back… One second, he was shooting forward, shoving Blue and Allura out of the way, the next all he knew was this dark emptiness that stretched on forever around him. So much so that he hadn’t even known what “he” even was anymore. There was certainly no bright tunnel of light, no flashes of his life, just… nothing and everything all at once. 

So much for not thinking about it.

Lance shakes his head and lets out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding, the memory (if you could even call it that) making his mind feel like it’s about to split apart. 

And then he’s falling to his knees as something crashes into Red. Or, more accurately, catches her.

Lance struggles against the pressure surrounding them, a familiar one that sends a jolt of fear through his body. Tractor beam. Shit.

“Uh, guys, I think Sendak is back.”

He manages to pull himself back into his chair and reach for the controls, but Red is completely immobile.

He can hear Allura calling to him through the comms, but it’s slightly distorted. He catches the words “to my lion” and figures that means she is almost back in Blue. _At least she isn’t caught up in the beam, too_ , he thinks. 

Lance glances out through the lion’s eyes, catching a glimpse of the giant cruiser ship pulling Red toward it. The blue lion is several hundred meters away, and now coming back online with its paladin back inside.

“Guys, what’s going on?” Hunk’s worried voice comes through.

He hears Pidge swear before shouting, “Hold on, we’re on our way!”

Allura shoots forward in Blue, turning to the ship that had come out of nowhere.

Has Sendak come back, or had they somehow cloaked the ship and waited for the perfect time to strike? Lance could’ve sworn they had shot off into space before.

He lets out a curse as a few fighter ships appear, landing a couple of hits on Blue and sending the lion flying back.

“Allura!” he calls out, pushing forward to get Red to move, but she won’t budge. “Come _on_ ,” he growls, leaning into it.

But then everything goes white and Red is surrounded by bright, crackling energy that rips through her body, shorting out all her systems and then encompassing Lance as well. He tenses as the world turns purple and white, and his muscles freeze in place, coated in what feels like burning ice. He screams as he falls forward, unable to hold himself up with hands he can’t even feel anymore. Somehow, the thought of dying a second time is even more terrifying. It’s barely even been ten minutes! 

As darkness spreads throughout his mind once more, Lance decides the universe must have some kind of grudge against him. 

He isn’t sure how much time has gone by when he finally comes to, but he vaguely registers the feeling of rough hands on his arms as they drag the rest of him along with them.

He tries getting his brain to send a message to his dead limbs to move, fight back, do _anything_ , but he can feel that weird energy still tingling through him. At least that means the feeling is returning to his body, though, even if it seems to be slow-going. 

He takes that thought back a tick later as pain lances through his knees when they hit the solid ground hard. He has just enough sense to pull his arms up as best he can and catch himself before his face hits the floor.

 _Rude_ , Lance thinks bitterly as he peels his eyes open. Even when they held Lotor as a prisoner— _Zarkon’s son_ —they hadn’t really treated him badly. Then again, the prince had willingly gone to them in order to prove his good intentions, whereas Lance had absolutely no desire to be here right now.

He lifts his head, glancing around quickly—they appear to be on the bridge of the galra ship—and his gaze settles on the large galra looking down at him a couple of meters away.

Lance swallows and does his best to hide the sudden feeling of dread as he glares up at Sendak. He goes to stand but is roughly shoved back down by a heavy hand on his shoulder, his knees aching with the impact. 

“Don’t bother fighting,” Sendak growls, sounding annoyed as he approaches. “We are already far from the rest of Voltron.”

“What do you want with Red?” Lance grinds out because he knows Sendak isn’t really after _him_. He still doesn’t understand the obsession the Galra have with Voltron, other than Zarkon’s orders to retrieve the black lion. It isn’t like they would be able to pilot the lions themselves. They wouldn’t gain Voltron just by capturing them. The lions choose their own paladins and Lance is (mostly) certain they would never let these brutish galrans pilot them.

The door slides open behind them and he hears loud steps come to a stop by his side.

“We are unable to get back into the lion, sir. It has surrounded itself with a protective forcefield,” a female galran soldier informs her commander.

Lance clenches his teeth together as Sendak shoots him a scathing glare.

“Yes, it seems that is what they are programmed to do when left unattended,” he says simply without looking away from the red paladin. “Bring him back to the hangar.”

 _No_. He can’t let them get inside Red, even if they wouldn’t be able to pilot her.

Lance struggles against the two galra shoving him down the halls back toward the hangar containing his lion but quickly realizes it’s not really getting him anywhere. He wishes he were more like Shiro, or even Keith, right now. They would probably be able to get themselves out of this situation without much effort at all.

“Lower it,” Sendak commands as they stop in front of Red, who remains powered down and forcefield up.

 _Don’t_ , Lance tells her. _Keep it up, no matter what, girl._

He feels a worried nudge inside his mind, but she gives no outward indication of being responsive. That’s his girl.

“Paladin,” Sendak growls threateningly.

Lance pushes all his fear to the back of his mind and lets out a snort.

“What, you really think I’d just hand over my lion that easily?”

Lance grins up at Sendak as the commander stares down his nose at him. Well, with his normal eye anyway. The glowing orange one just glows a little brighter. 

“ _Your_ lion.” Sendak says it more as an observation than a question, which sets off warning bells in Lance’s mind.

Sendak turns toward Red, eyeing the lion for a moment, and the look in his eye is eerily knowing and Lance knows he’s already screwed up somehow. Figures.

The commander gives a contemplative hum, which Lance thinks sounds really strange coming from the monstrous, angry-looking galra. He turns back to Lance, directing his orders at the two galra still keeping his arms in a death grip.

“Put him in a cell for now.”

“Sir?” the galra on Lance’s left inquires curiously.

Sendak doesn’t respond at first, instead, waving a hand—the real one—dismissively at them as he turns back toward Red. “He is a paladin of Voltron,” he says, as though that should be answer enough. “It seems only he can control the red lion. Neither of them will be giving in anytime soon.”

Lance feels a swell of pride that even one of their greatest enemies seems to believe Lance is strong enough to hold out against them simply for being a paladin. Titles really do go a long way. Not that he would have ever let himself give into these assholes if he could help it.

“I want them separated,” Sendak continues, and Lance feels the blood drain from his face.

“What?” he bites out before he can stop himself.

Sendak ignores him. “Take it to Raxol. The Altean princess has been able to track the lions’ locations in the past. If she manages to do so again, then at least the beast will be useless to them without its paladin.”

Raxol? That isn’t any planet Lance recognizes the name of, if it even is a planet.

Lance grits his teeth as the hands tighten around his arms again, dragging him away from Red. This time he does manage to fight back a little, kicking out at the tall male galra to his left, but a fist collides with his jaw from the other side, too quickly for him to block, and he registers the taste of blood as stars flash behind his eyes.

“Commander?”

Lance pries his eyes open again long enough to catch the nod from Sendak before he disappears through the hangar doors. A second impact then comes at the back of his head, and with it that same darkness he is steadily growing a little too used to.

***

They had left the galra base in a hurry, Allura rushing back to the castleship before the others had even made it to their lions. She has been trying to track Lance and the red lion for the past few vargas, while Pidge and Hunk worked on the more technical ways of locating them. Still nothing. 

Allura figures Sendak must already be far beyond her range by now, but she continues on, hoping for just a spark of _something_ , anything that might indicate where the galra commander may have taken their red paladin.

The rage she had felt when the galra ship had snatched Lance and his lion up and disappeared with barely a fight was the sort she hasn’t felt since the galra first turned on her people all those thousands of deca-phoebs ago, though to her it still feels like it only just happened.

Allura notices the rest of the team quietly flitting about the bridge with nerves clear on display as she finally steps back to take a break from her search, though it was only at Coran’s insistence. She cannot locate them if she is not conscious. 

All but Shiro, that is.

A portion of Allura’s worry has been devoted to the older human since they had returned to the ship. The tired look that had been there when they entered the bridge still remains and Allura has half a mind to send him back to his room to rest. As they all set to work, Shiro, realizing there was not really much he could do to help at the moment, had stood by his station for a few doboshes before finally collapsing into the chair. 

Everyone had looked to their leader, then each other, but said nothing and continued working on how to find their missing friend.

Allura watches him now, concern drawing her mouth down at the corners as he leans against the side of Pidge’s chair. His eyes meet hers briefly before he turns his gaze back to Pidge’s many screens before them.

Something had happened to him back at the base, but Allura has yet been able to ask him about it with everything going on. A small part of her knows he probably will not give her much of an answer even if she does.

 _I will speak to Pidge about it later_ , she decides, nodding to herself.

“We need to contact Keith,” the black paladin finally speaks up, drawing everyone’s attention to him.

“Keith?” Pidge turns around in her seat as she looks up at the older man with a frown.

“Oh, yeah, duh. The Blades would be able to cover more space in less time,” Hunk agrees. The look Shiro gives their largest paladin causes a feeling of unease in Allura.

Shiro moves to stand beside her, straightening his shoulders as he crosses his arms.

“We’ll talk to the Blade of Marmora about the search, but for now we need Keith back to pilot the red lion.”

“I’m sorry, _what_?” Pidge stands up, eyebrows disappearing high into her hairline. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the red lion was captured by Sendak back there. Along with _Lance_.”

Allura turns back to her post, lifting her hands once again to continue her search and keeping part of her focus on the others as they speak.

“Pidge…” Shiro says softly, as though consoling a child who doesn’t understand why their pet lormark isn’t coming home. “I’m not sure—”

“What?” Pidge snaps.

“Woah, woah, wait, what are you saying, Shiro?” Hunk worries, his steps coming closer.

Allura’s hands are tense as she tries to push her mind out farther. She _needs_ to find their lost friend, and soon. The cracks are already starting to form in their team.

“I just have a feeling Sendak would be one to learn from past mistakes,” Shiro continues, his tone still apologetic. “He won’t be stupid enough to keep a paladin and their lion together. We have a better chance of locating the red lion.”

Allura isn’t quite sure if he is referring to a specific incident, but she ignores the parts of his words that don’t match up as she pushes her mind out farther, trying to latch onto anything familiar.

“We don’t _know_ that,” Pidge mutters, but Allura can tell from the defeated tone that the thought has already crossed her mind as well.

“Whether they’re together or not, Keith is our best shot at finding the red lion. He’s the only other living person to have a connection with it.”

Allura gasps and pulls her hands away, nearly collapsing where she stands. Coran, oddly silent during this entire debate, is quick to support her weight, letting her lean against him as she takes a deep breath to clear her head before turning back to her teammates.

“I am sorry, but I am unable to locate Lance or the red lion. They are too far out of range for me,” Allura admits guiltily as she sees the twin broken-hearted looks on the green and yellow paladins’ faces.

“It’s not your fault, princess,” Shiro consoles, giving her a sympathetic smile.

“We’re calling the Blade so Keith can help look for Lance and Red,” Pidge states stubbornly, finally agreeing with Shiro with narrowed eyes, emphasizing that she expects their priority to be the former.

Shiro, his expression turning apologetic once more as he looks down at the young girl glaring at her many screens. “I don’t think informing the Blade yet is a good idea.”

“But you literally just said—”

“I said we need to talk to Keith, not the Blade,” Shiro interrupts Pidge as she jumps to her feet.

The outraged look on the younger girl’s face has Allura interrupting before any more problems can arise.

“Because they might doubt our ability and spread the news to others within the coalition?” she inquires, though it comes out as more of a statement.

Shiro nods, looking grim. “Why follow Voltron if we can’t even keep one of our own teammates safe?”

The words sting Allura as though she had been slapped.

“I can try getting ahold of Keith,” Hunk steps in, the small device Allura has seen them carrying around with them on occasion.

They all wait in uncomfortable silence as Hunk tries sending Keith a message and then calling once, twice, both with no response. Hunk frowns up at them with a shake of his head.

Allura looks to Coran, who immediately understands her silent request and heads toward his work area at the front of the bridge.

“I understand your concerns on the matter, Shiro, but finding Lance is our current priority, and if we cannot reach Keith on our own, then it is a risk we must take,” Allura states firmly. If their leader tries arguing against them again, she will not allow it this time. She refuses to back down on this matter. He may be the leader of Voltron, but she is a leader of the coalition.

A beep interrupts Coran’s typing as he begins to initiate the call to Kolivan. 

“Wait!” Pidge shouts excitedly, sliding into her chair. “There’s a match for the search I ran for Voltron’s signature readings.”

Allura hears Coran quietly speaking to whoever had answered their call, requesting to speak with their old teammate.

“It’s… kinda far,” Pidge sighs, giving Allura a worried frown.

After her searches and the events that occurred at the shield (not that the others knew about what she had done to save Lance yet) Allura is feeling thoroughly drained, but she knows she will do her best to get them wherever they need to be.

Kolivan appears on a large screen before them a moment later, his face as serious as always. No sign of Keith.

Allura steps forward and greets him quickly, her teammates doing the same with nods and waves.

“I’m afraid we are in a bit of a hurry,” she informs the rebel leader. “Is Keith with you, by chance?”

“No,” Kolivan says with a single shake of his head. “He left for a mission recently.”

Allura frowns. She had been hoping they might be lucky enough to speak to Keith directly. Despite her insistence to contact them for assistance, she knows that Shiro has a point as well. It is a risk to let the coalition, or even other galra if the information is somehow leaked, know that they are down a lion and its paladin.

“Has something happened?” Kolivan eyes each of them, all sporting similar looks of frustration and worry.

Allura looks to Shiro, who has remained surprisingly silent.

Catching her gaze, Shiro nods and steps up beside her.

“There has been an… incident, and we lost contact with the red paladin,” he explains vaguely. “We need Keith back to help find them.”

“We had also hoped you might be able to assist us in locating them,” Allura adds, sensing Shiro’s reluctance to say any more on the matter.

The black paladin tenses beside her but says nothing.

Kolivan seems to understand their hesitation to say too much and simply nods.

Pidge stands, catching Kolivan’s attention as she looks between him and her screens.

“I have a general location of where the red lion could be. Or at least where it might be heading. Allura still needs to recover a little before we can wormhole anywhere,” Pidge tells him, shooting the princess a pleading glare before she can speak against her. 

Allura finally nods and Pidge turns back to the rebel leader still listening intently and now sporting a concerned look of his own, to Allura’s surprise.

“I can send you the coordinates of the system the red lion seems to be heading toward. It’s not one I’m familiar with, but it seems relatively small; a single yellow star and just a few planets, all uninhabited…” The smaller girl trails off, eyes widening slightly, as though realizing she is speaking to the leader of the Blades as if he has already agreed to help them.

Coran, still down on the lower level of the bridge, speaks up, twisting his mustache between his fingers. “If you would be able to scout out the area, we can wormhole there in just a few short vargas, after the princess is able to build up her strength again.”

Allura dislikes her weakness being brought up so many times about as much as Shiro seems to, but if Kolivan is willing to help them, she will not complain.

Kolivan surveys all of them before nodding again with a stern, “Very well, we will assist Voltron in any way that we can.”

Pidge is unable to hide her relieved smile, the same as Allura. The green paladin begins typing away on her screen, and a tick later, something on Kolivan’s side beeps and he is then frowning down at the unseen screen before him.

“Something wrong?” Shiro inquires, looking tense.

“Keith should actually be in this quadrant, relatively close to this area by now,” Kolivan comments. “It is a section of the galaxy deemed rather unsafe. I will try to contact him and have him look into scouting out the area until you arrive.”

“By himself?” Hunk asks worriedly.

“There is another Blade member with him,” Kolivan informs them. “Their mission can be postponed for now, as the necessity for Voltron is much greater at the moment. I will inform them to standby until you arrive.”

“Thank you,” Allura replies with an incline of her head.

The video feed disappears a moment later, leaving the team in a tense silence.

“You should rest for a bit, princess,” Coran insists. “Just a varga or two for you to regain your strength.”

Allura looks around at her fellow paladins, receiving similar nods of encouragement. They all look as restless as she feels beneath the blanket of exhaustion. Even Shiro gives her a warm smile.

“Rest up, princess. Keith can handle it until we get there.”

“Very well,” Allura sighs. 

She finally allows the exhaustion to take hold as she steps toward the door, listening to Coran tell the others they should rest as well while they can since they will likely be entering another battle shortly. 

Allura slinks off to her room, silently hoping everything will go just fine and they will have both Lance and the red lion back before the quintant is over.


	4. catch a lion by its toe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first part of this chapter was surprisingly difficult for me to get out, and I’m not quite sure how I feel about it still, but just going with it. Also introducing some OCs in the last scene that will be sticking around for a bit and maybe even coming back later on ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯  
> Songs:  
> Hopelessly Hopeful – Asking Alexandria (because slight angst)  
> i know that’s not you – Kayou.

Traveling alone across the galaxy with his galra mom isn’t as awkward as Keith expected it to be. Despite them technically being together the past few weeks, they hadn’t had much time to _really_ be together since their initial talk where she explained what had happened back on Earth all those years ago and why she had to leave them.

Kolivan had immediately needed him for another mission, and then another after that, too. Krolia stayed behind to rest and debrief with the rebel leader so they could begin to formulate a plan with the information she’d gathered.

He’s glad he at least got to talk to his friends before departing, though he would have liked to talk to Shiro as well; it honestly hadn’t even crossed his mind at the time and he feels a bit guilty for not asking for him. He knows Shiro must have one of the devices Pidge made since it was programmed into his own, but they had yet to talk to each other through them. 

In fact, Shiro barely even acknowledged him during the few times Keith has been aboard the castleship since he joined up with the Blade. It honestly hurt to think about sometimes, and he was starting to get a little worried about his brother based on the few things he heard from the others. Ever since Shiro returned, he’s been more reckless, what with handing off his bayard to their enemy (at the time) on a hunch, and then taking said non-enemy to a crazy galra ritual where all of the alien species’ most powerful commanders were present. 

Shiro always thought things through and made sure to make the best possible decision for his team, like how he’d asked them what they thought about flying off in the blue lion all that time ago.

Something is different about the older man now, though, and Keith decides he will definitely be checking in on him next time he sees him.

They had stopped to rest on a moon before the last stretch of their trip to the abyss and are now flying out of the system. Krolia suggested Keith pilot while they’re in this three-star system because of the many planets orbiting their respective stars, and a busy asteroid belt right in the middle. Flying through has cut their travel time significantly, but avoiding all the asteroids and gravitational fields here is a little difficult, even for Keith with his years of experience as a fighter pilot and paladin. Their current ship isn’t nearly as fast as the lions.

Krolia leans forward as a video feed pops up on the dash, flickering grey and staticky a few times before settling on Kolivan’s usually blank face.

“Kolivan,” his mother greets the rebel leader with a nod of her head, though she eyes the screen suspiciously.

“Your mission is going to be delayed for a while,” the other galra responds, not even bothering with a “hello”.

Keith and Krolia glance at each other and Keith frowns.

“Hasn’t it been delayed enough as it is?” he asks. “It’s been weeks already.”

The grim look on Kolivan’s face tells him he feels the same, but his next words are butchered by radio interference as Keith tries to focus on both the screen and weaving the ship between two large moons that are surprisingly close together. Exhilaration shoots through him; his kind of quick thinking-flying has always been his favorite.

“-to this nearby system in the quadrant… will send the location coordinates,” Kolivan is saying, the video freezing every now and then.

“Take us out farther,” Krolia orders, standing to lean on the back of his chair to get a better view of the screen.

“Are you receiving—?”

“Not very well, but enough,” Keith says, thinking back to the time he and Hunk were in a similar situation, stuck trying to decipher Coran’s faulty instructional video. They hadn’t gotten much out of the video then, but they had still succeeded in their mission somehow.

The coordinates pop up below and Keith changes course.

“-red lion… there. Do not engage.”

Red lion? Are they meeting Lance there?

“-paladins will meet you shortly-” The video freezes again and Keith lets out a frustrated puff of air.

What the hell is going on? Has something happened already? And why is Lance meeting them before the rest of the team?

“Something about this doesn’t feel right,” Krolia says as the video remains frozen this time. She leans forward, tapping several buttons on the controls to get rid of the video, and then attempting to send an actual message that they received the coordinates and are on their way.

If they hadn’t seen Kolivan himself, Keith might have suspected it was just a trick. It still could be, he supposes, but the distressed look on their leader’s face is one Keith has never seen before. He feels a little uneasy as they zoom out of the system, backtracking to one they had passed not too long ago.

The solar system is small compared to the one they were just traversing, made up of a single yellow star and what looks like only three major planets, and the last one is big enough to block out the view of the other two as they approach. 

Keith takes them around it slowly, heading to the single moon around the other side and landing on its dusty, dark grey surface. It looks as though it may have been composed entirely of volcanoes at one point and is now just solidified lava.

Static sounds through the comms, though it clears up much quicker this time as Kolivan’s face pops up on the screen once again.

“We’ve reached the location,” Krolia informs him. “It’s a three-planet system, but we didn’t catch it if you specified where we are supposed to be going.”

“The green paladin only sent those coordinates of the system itself. She was unable to get an exact location, but I assume one of Sendak’s bases is nearby.”

“Sendak?” Keith blurts, Krolia shooting the screen an equally confused look.

Kolivan’s eyes narrow. “Yes, Sendak,” he states obviously.

That must have been in a part of his earlier message that cut out, then, if he expects they should know what he’s talking about.

A low beep sounds and a part of the dashboard lights up red, alerting them to an approaching unidentified vessel.

“There’s a ship passing by.”

Krolia shifts in her seat, eyes following the galra cruiser as it zooms past, heading toward the middle planet.

“Track it, but keep your distance,” Kolivan orders, eyeing Keith with an indecipherable expression before adding, “And Keith… My advice from before still stands. I’m sure you can understand the importance of this mission, but think before you react.”

Keith isn’t sure whether he should feel insulted or not, and he ignores his mom’s questioning eyes as he nods once. He isn’t sure why Kolivan is acting so strange, but he doesn’t have much time to question it as they take off again, following the ship at a distance.

The fact is he _doesn’t_ understand why it’s important since they barely got any information about this sudden new mission that apparently involved Voltron and took precedence over their search in the quantum abyss. 

He’s about to ask Kolivan what exactly they are doing here when the cruiser suddenly changes course. For a moment Keith thinks the other ship has picked up on their presence as it slows, turning, but then it descends onto one of the middle planet’s moons and Keith remembers the technology Pidge helped to develop for the Blade’s ships in order to remain undetected in cases like this as long as they remain out of sight.

“Would you mind explaining why we’re here?” Krolia inquires as Keith quickly takes their own ship down to a neighboring moon, fixing a camera on the spot the cruiser had landed. 

“Your message earlier cut out in a few places,” Krolia explains at their leader’s blank look. “We only received the coordinates and know the paladins of Voltron will be meeting us soon.”

Kolivan’s eyes widen and he glances to Keith again, looking uncharacteristically concerned, which only serves to piss Keith off even more. Does he really think him that incapable of keeping his emotions in check?

Keith hides his scowl and keeps his eyes on the video feed of the base hidden in the side of a small mountain of the icy moon.

“Yes, of course.” The cruiser lowers itself to the ground, hangar doors opening. “It seems they have lost contact with one of their paladins and tracked it to this location.”

Keith sucks in a breath, eyes flicking to Kolivan for a moment before he sits up and squints at the image of the cruiser on the screen.

 _No_.

“Don’t go rushing in,” Kolivan warns, obviously noticing Keith’s reaction.

Keith feels his heart jump into his throat. _What the fuck?_

“We certainly missed that part of your message as well,” Krolia says, voice clipped.

The red lion is being lowered toward the base as a large set of doors open in the mountainside, cloaked in the usual shield the lions keep up when not in use, but other than that is completely powered down.

Keith feels a hand grip his wrist tightly and jerks his gaze down to find Krolia’s fingers wrapped around his arm. He hadn’t even realized he was reaching for the controls again.

“We wait for the others.”

“That’s _Lance_ ,” Keith stresses, as though that should make them both change their minds all of a sudden. Krolia has no clue who the other boy is, and Kolivan only knows him as the one who replaced Keith as the paladin of the red lion. 

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knows waiting is the logical option. Kolivan said the rest of the team would be here shortly, and he believes him, but he doesn’t want to just sit here and _wait_. He _hates_ waiting. What if Lance is hurt? Why is Red offline when they should be fighting back? Is Lance even inside?

All these questions and more are swarming through his head as another screen pops up revealing Allura and the others all standing together at the center of the bridge.

“Keith!” Hunk and Pidge shout in unison, matching mixed looks of distress and relief on their faces.

“What happened?” he demands.

“We have just wormholed in,” Allura informs them, completely brushing over Keith’s question, and he bristles. “What have you found?”

“There is a base on one of the moons of the second planet in,” Krolia answers, sending him a look that clearly says _calm down_.

Keith’s mouth twists in annoyance, but he stays quiet and listens as he watches the galra move Red inside. Allura explains what happened earlier that day, how they had been helping repair a shield before solar radiation could destroy the galra base on the planet below. Sendak had been there and attacked quickly before disappearing, or so they thought. After they had succeeded and the radiation passed, Sendak appeared again out of nowhere and captured Lance. Just _took_ him. How the hell did that even happen? Why weren’t the others there to help? Didn’t they practice getting to their lions in record time specifically for a situation like that?

Keith almost asks as much but grits his teeth together instead. It isn’t their fault. It could have been any one of them, he supposes, but Lance was probably just the easiest target at the time. He really hopes that’s the case, at least, and that Sendak wasn’t singling the red paladin out for any specific reason.

Keith remains silent for the majority of the conversation, letting Krolia go over their plan of attack with them. Red is now securely behind doors and galra are filing out of the cruiser, beginning repairs, and apparently also bringing the base supplies. He fights the urge to bounce his leg impatiently, getting more annoyed by the minute as they sit here instead of just going to look for Lance and get Red back. It’s one little base, after all. It’s not like they will be able to put up much of a fight against the majority of Voltron’s lions and two skilled members of the Blade. Plus, there’s also Coran in the castleship.

But he knows the less damage there is, the better, especially if Lance is inside there somewhere, though Keith has yet to see any indication of him being present.

For a moment, Keith wishes he never left the others to join the Blade. He should have been there to protect his friends these past months, even if he hadn’t stayed on as the black paladin. He should have been there when Lance was taken because a part of him insists it wouldn’t have happened if he had been there. He knows that sounds silly and unlikely, but the feeling is still there.

He then reminds himself that he wouldn’t have met his mother if he hadn’t left, though if the choice came down to meeting the mother he never knew and losing Lance forever… well, it isn’t really much of a choice.

***

The silence of the green lion’s cockpit is almost unbearable as Pidge takes them down toward the base.

Keith has yet to say anything to them directly after his initial outburst, but she’s glad to see him safe and in person again. A wave of guilt had washed over her when he had hopped from his own ship and she caught a glimpse of the wild, desperate look in his eyes. His partner remained inside their ship—speaking to Kolivan, he’d said—and he immediately moved to follow Pidge as she jogged over to her lion.

After a few minutes of debating on a plan, they had finally decided that stealth was the best option. Pidge is to take Keith down to the base in Green since her lion is the only one capable of completely cloaking itself. Well, that wasn’t entirely true since she had managed to cloak Voltron as a whole before, but they don’t have Voltron and that seemed like overkill anyway. A simple two-person team will do just fine in their case. Keith is the obvious choice because of his connection to the red lion and his galra DNA to help her hack into the base’s system.

The guilty feeling remains as she lands them just off to the side of the base, perched on a cliff around the side of the mountain it’s nestled into. Guilty for losing a member of their team and worrying that he might blame them for it, or even worse, be disappointed in them. Though he isn’t their leader anymore and hadn’t been for that long, she had gotten used to seeing him in that way. She has a feeling he’s blaming himself just as much as the rest of them even though he hadn’t been there. 

Keith mumbles a simple, “Let’s go,” and heads through the cockpit doors before she can even jump out of her seat. 

They climb over the rocky side of the mountain. While she assumes most of the base has been built inside the mountain, a small portion of it remains outside just off to the side of the open hangar where Red is being kept and galra soldiers are carrying supplies in from the cruiser. Keith takes the lead as they jetpack down to the side of the building and she cuts into the wall with the laser she’d brought along.

The hallway on this end is quiet, though she can hear muffled voices coming from the closed doors on the end farthest from them. Fortunately, that isn’t the way they need to go and they quickly shuffle in the other direction, Keith using his hand to pass through every checkpoint, all the while keeping an eye out for any passing galrans.

Pidge manages to download some blueprints of the base’s layout on the way, and they find their way to an unmanned control room, only coming into contact with one soldier that Keith made quick work of and left unconscious and tied up in a storeroom.

Pidge is about ready to scream as she hacks into the system. The ex-paladin still hasn’t said a word to her, which sure, they’re trying to sneak around unseen and alone in this galra-infested place, so being quiet is the logical option here, but still. He’s usually so attentive during missions, ready to make a split-second decision at any moment, but right now he just seems distracted and caught up in his own head. At least the downturned lips aren’t anything new. Not that it makes her feel any better.

“Are you okay?” she finally asks as she brings up all communications the base has sent and received in the past quintant.

“Huh?” Keith blinks, looking as though he forgot she was there with him.

Pidge frowns and nods for him to place his hand on the scanner so she could begin decoding the few messages that popped up. 

“I asked if you’re okay, you know, with everything going on?” she says again, scrolling through transmissions. “It kinda looked like you were just finding out what happened when we got here. I would have thought Kolivan had told you beforehand.”

“Am I supposed to be okay when Lance is being held prisoner by Sendak?”

Pidge has always appreciated his sometimes brutal and oblivious honesty, but the words hurt. She swallows as she taps on a message received shortly after Sendak had disappeared with their friend.

“I don’t know how it even happened,” she admits, brows knitting together. “Sendak kind of appeared out of nowhere and Allura was the only one out there with him. Not even in her lion, either.”

Keith turns to her, looking surprised. “Why?”

Pidge shrugs. She hasn’t been able to ask Allura what had happened out there yet, though she certainly plans to as soon as all of this is over.

“Here!”

They both lean forward and she scans the message twice before letting out a distressed sigh and pulling at her hair in frustration. “He’s not here.”

“What’s the quickest path to the hangar holding Red?”

Keith’s voice sounds detached and to the point, causing Pidge to frown at him in concern, but she lifts her arm and brings up the holographic map to show him the route he should take. His closed-off demeanor is unnerving, especially compared to the way he was when Shiro had been captured before; all angsty and freaking out about how no one _else_ seemed to be upset about their leader’s disappearance. Which, by the way, she totally was, but felt helpless in how to find him, much like she does now.

Keith nods after he memorizes the path and then turns to go.

“Wait, hold on!”

“What.”

Pidge flinches at the tone and Keith’s expression softens.

“Sorry,” he mumbles, looking away.

“We’re all worried. Just make sure you aren’t caught, too. Get the red lion and get back to the ship. I’ll be right behind you in Green.”

“What are you going to do?”

Pidge flashes him one of her cunning grins and turns back to the screens. “I’m gonna hack into their database here and find out about any other bases Sendak might have under his control.”

Keith actually gives her an impressed smile, as if she doesn’t do this kind of thing in her sleep. “That’s a good idea.”

“Duh. Now go get Red.”

Keith nods and slips out of the room, his Marmora mask forming over his face.

Pidge knows Allura has been trying to track Lance as well as the red lion with her strange Altean powers, but she isn’t entirely sure it’s even possible for her to find a person that way; she at least had some kind of mental connection with the lions. 

With any luck, they can get Red to locate Lance once they get back to the castleship as the black lion had with Shiro. Pidge knows the Altean princess is powerful but doubts she could pick out Lance from the entirety of the universe, even if she could find people that way. It hadn’t worked when she attempted it trying to find Shiro when he’d been taken all those months ago—maybe even a year now? It’s hard to keep track of time out here in space when there are no real days or nights most of the time, or even seasons, to connect the passing of time to.

Once Pidge downloads the information she needs, she sets up a virus that will destroy all the power systems in the base in five doboshes and then sprints down the few halls to one of the large open windows overlooking the hangar Keith should be in by now.

Some galra are piling crates in one corner near the hangar’s opening, a few others milling about on the opposite end that leads into the base, chatting like a group of coworkers on break. 

She spots Keith on the far end, no more than a shadow against the wall, slipping between the galra pods lined up there. 

“Everything good?” Shiro’s voice startles her.

“So far, so good. Keith is heading to the red lion now… Lance isn’t here.”

“I assumed as much,” Shiro says, his voice grim, but the comment still annoys her. What’s his problem lately? He had never been so pessimistic in the past, even during the worst of their battles. 

She doesn’t bother replying this time and instead watches as Keith approaches the red lion from behind. He glances back as one of the galra at the other end of the room laughs too loudly. 

Pidge pulls out her bayard, shifting it into its grappling hook form, just in case.

It doesn’t take long for the ex-paladin to get the lion’s attention enough for the shield to be lowered and, as expected, the disappearance of it also catches the attention of the three soldiers who immediately stop talking, pulling out their blasters as they head toward the lion. 

Pidge doesn’t hesitate as she aims her bayard and shoots the long wire out, knocking the gun from one of the galran’s hands. They turn and look up at her in alarm and she gives them a Lance-esque grin and solute as the hook reels back in. 

One galra says something to the others and then two of them are charging for the doors at the back of the room, most likely making their way up to her. The third remains in the hangar and heads to the lion cautiously.

 _Keith can handle one galra_ , she thinks as she steps back. 

But that doesn’t seem like it will be necessary as Red’s eyes light up, the lion coming back online, though the usual roar doesn’t come.

Pidge senses something is a little off but decides it’s a concern for later as it seems Red is manageable enough to fly out of here. As Red shoots out of the hangar, she turns and runs back toward the hall they originally came from, darting past doorways and around corners without even checking for enemies. She’s pretty sure most of them are outside with the cruiser or deep inside the base, anyway, but it’s still a little reckless. 

She reaches the hole she’d cut into the wall earlier just a few ticks after the alarms begin blaring, and she just barely manages to squeeze through as galra storm from the room at the end of the hall.

“Guys, I think we’re gonna need some backup now,” she says through the comms.

“Roger that,” Shiro replies quickly, the efficient leader that he is.

Pidge jetpacks to her lion, dodging the blaster shots as she goes, and practically launches herself inside as the ramp lowers for her.

The red lion is flying high above, much slower than it should be, and there are already fighter ships in pursuit. She must be right about something being up with Red, too, because she can’t get a communication link between them to check in with Keith. If he wasn’t actually flying toward the fast-approaching lions in the sky, she would say Red was still completely offline with what little feedback she was getting. 

The four of them manage to fight off the galra ships pretty easily once the others join in and then head for their respective bays, Keith having already returned to the castleship.

“Other than actually letting me fly out of there, Red was unresponsive,” Keith is saying as Pidge enters the red lion’s hangar, Shiro and Allura already there, as well as a tall female galra that must be Keith’s fellow Blade member.

The red lion is once again offline with the force field back in place.

“Red pretty much kicked me out the second we landed.”

“That is quite odd,” Allura muses with a frown. “The energy that Sendak used to shock them appeared to have shut down the red lion completely before… Perhaps they continued to use it after.”

Keith turns to Pidge as she comes to a stop beside Shiro.

“Did you get what you were looking for?”

Pidge nods but is interrupted by Hunk and Coran entering the bay, both panting lightly. She sends them a relieved smile. They were one step closer to getting their whole family back together, at least. _Then_ they can get back to defending the universe and all that.

“I found the locations of at least five other bases that could be linked to Sendak that we should check out,” she explains.

“I’m going to back to Kolivan for now,” the galran woman speaks up for the first time, her voice somehow softer than Pidge would have expected. There is also something eerily familiar about her that Pidge can’t quite put her finger on.

Keith looks a little disappointed but nods before turning back to the team.

“Uh, this is Krolia, by the way,” he tells them, looking uncharacteristically hesitant. “She’s my mom.”

 _Ah, and that would be why_ , Pidge realizes. She could see it now, the resemblance between mother and son.

“Your _mom_?” Hunk exclaims excitedly. “Woah, that is so cool.”

“It’s good to finally meet all of you,” Krolia says, an amused smile playing at her lips. 

_Well not_ all _of us_ , Pidge thinks bitterly. 

Krolia turns to their leader and holds out a hand. “You must be Shiro.”

Shiro looks a little surprised but firmly takes her hand.

“Thank you for taking care of my son.”

“Of course,” Shiro smiles in that fatherly way of his. 

The paladins let Keith and his mother go off to do their own thing for a while before she leaves, and they head back to the bridge to figure out their next course of action.

***

“Come on, get up.”

Lance blinks blearily up at the galra soldier standing over him, his head feeling like someone had taken a jackhammer to the inside. The last thing he remembers is Sendak giving the order to take Red away somewhere. What did he call it? Rolak? Rakel? Something with a K sound, surely. The Galra seem to use that a lot when naming things. And themselves.

He wonders how long he was out for this time. At least a few hours, judging from the numbness of his right leg, which had been bent inward underneath the left. 

“I said, _get up_ ,” the galra growls, stepping into the cell farther, though he doesn’t appear to have any weapon on him. Stupid move on his part, not that Lance thinks he can really do much against them without his bayard. Sure, he’s gotten better at hand-to-hand combat with all his extra training lately, but he’s no match for however many galra are probably on the ship.

Lance groans and pushes himself into a sitting position with his elbow, seeing as his wrists are cuffed together in front of him. He tries to ignore the dizziness that comes over him with the movement. 

“Interrogation time?” he ponders out loud. The idea that they might torture him also pops into his head, but he feels voicing the least scary of the two will help make the other seem like less of a possibility. 

“Not yet,” sneers the second galran still standing in the doorway. This one looks younger than the first. Lance might even say they’re the same age if he didn’t know galra have much longer lifespans. For all he knows, the guy might be three times his age. The poor grip he has on his blaster makes Lance think otherwise, though. Either that or they just don’t train their soldiers very well.

“Nox.”

The older-looking galra shoots the boy a glare before leaning down to grip Lance’s arm and pull him to his feet with a hard tug.

Lance winces at the pinprick feeling still spreading through his sleepy foot.

The taller galran keeps his hand on his arm and Lance notices that the top half of his armor had been removed while he was out. Great.

The younger one, Nox, trails behind them silently as they make their way down several purple-lit halls.

“Soo, where we goin’?”

The grip on his arm tightens in a silent command to _shut up_ , but Nox doesn’t hesitate to respond.

“You’re getting transferred to a more remote location,” he says, voice dripping with a sort of cruel delight. “Sendak-”

A snarl sounds from Lance’s left. “Do you ever follow orders?”

Lance glances back to find Nox pouting at his fellow galran, the look reminding the paladin of a certain broody boy that had a similar look whenever Lance actually managed to beat him at something. In fact, Nox kind of looks a lot like Keith, if you ignore the big fluffy ears, bright yellow eyes, and dark grey-purple skin with even darker streaks sweeping in from jaw to upper cheekbone. His hair is a dark space-purple, falling around his ears and forehead with a lavender stripe down the middle to his bangs. 

Lance wonders if that’s how Keith would look if he were full galra.

Nox doesn’t even seem to notice Lance looking at him as he frowns at the ground, gun lowered, and Lance has to hold in a snort at how bad of a “soldier” this kid is. 

_Transferred, huh?_ Lance thinks as he faces forward again. 

His thoughts stray to his team. Are they okay? He hasn’t had much time to think about them since Sendak snatched Red up, hasn’t been _conscious_ long enough to worry. Sendak hadn’t hinted at fighting them, but that doesn’t mean they hadn’t been hurt before the asshole got away. He wonders if his lion is still here, too, or if they had taken her away already.

Lance closes his eyes and reaches out with his mind, but he just ends up feeling like he did when he was a kid testing if his telepathic powers had come in yet. 

They enter the same hangar from before, now empty save for a few pods and what appears to be a cargo ship. Another galran is waiting by the open hatch of one of the pods, his eyes going first to Lance, then Nox, and Lance is almost certain a look of concern passes over his face before he turns to the one dragging Lance along.

“Everything is prepared,” he tells him.

“Good.” 

Lance gets a shove at his back and the new galran reaches out to take the first one’s place in pulling Lance around by the arm. 

“No detours, Torvik. And try to keep him in line from now on,” the grouchier one adds sternly, nodding his head at Nox.

“Yes, sir.”

Lance is surprised to hear the words coming from the one who led them here, then realizes he was talking into the communicator attached around a large ear. He turns and leaves with one last nod at Torvik. Sendak must still be here, then. 

Now would be the perfect opportunity to try to escape. If he could just get past these two here and get out on the ship… but there is no way a little pod like that could outfly Sendak’s ship.

Maybe it would be best to wait and see where they take him. It couldn’t be too bad if it was away from Sendak, right?

Torvik raises his brows expectantly at the young galran and Lance realizes these two must be close, maybe even related, to each other. 

“What?” Nox snips and Lance almost chuckles at the reaction. 

He always expects galra to be the big, bad warrior type, and it’s nice to see some have actual personalities sometimes. It has certainly made teaming up with the majority of them a lot easier. Even though Lotor pisses him off ninety percent of the time, at least he isn’t always preaching about “victory or death”.

“I don’t suppose my armor and weapon are on here?” Lance asks as they lead him into the pod, figuring it can’t hurt.

Silence greets him and he lets out a dramatic sigh, receiving an annoyed glare from Nox as they settle him on the floor next to one of the pilot chairs. Torvik is surprisingly gentle with him for someone that’s supposed to hate him.

Lance spends the next however many hours trying to formulate some kind of plan, either for escape when they get wherever the hell they’re going, or at least for how he can get a message to his friends about where he is.

“I don’t suppose you’d be nice enough to tell me what’s going on?” Lance eventually tries again, adding on a little flattery this time. He directs it at Torvik, who seems to be the more level-headed of the two.

They had spent the first few minutes arguing about Nox’s lack of respect for authority figures and following orders before lapsing into a comfortable silence. Well, comfortable for them, anyway. Lance has been buzzing in his skin with anxiety since he woke up, despite the relaxed act he’s managed to put on so far.

He is surprised when Torvik glances over at him from his spot at the main pilot seat and gives him what Lance can only think to call an “appraising parent” look like he’s trying to decide whether or not Lance is really able to handle staying home on his own for the first time.

“We received a call for backup at Raxol-”

“ _That’s_ it!” Lance interrupts, sitting up straighter in his sudden excitement for finally figuring out the name he couldn’t remember before. 

Nox rolls his eyes with a scoff and Torvik only glances at him sidelong in confusion before continuing. “…It seems the other paladins were able to track your lion.”

Lance sucks in a breath. Why is he actually telling him this? Hadn’t the other galra back there said they were ordered not to talk to him or something? Unless Torvik is just lying, but something about the guy just gives off a very… genuine vibe. 

A feeling of dread creeps up Lance’s throat as he frowns at the metal floor of the cockpit. 

“So, Sendak is shipping me off somewhere while he goes to try and stop them?”

“Not exactly…”

“They already got away with the lion,” Nox butts in snidely, as though it’s supposed to be bad news for Lance, who is now silently rejoicing that Red was rescued.

Torvik lets out a disappointed sigh and Lance leans his head back against the wall, letting out a relieved sigh.

“Why do you look _happy_ about that?” Nox snarls. “You’re still stuck here. The lion flew out on its own, which means they already replaced you. Guess all that stuff Jirek said about there only being one paladin per lion isn’t true. Or they just found someone better.”

Lance can’t hide his flinch at the last comment, earning a sneer from Nox. He tips his head forward again, brows creasing. If they saw Red fly out on her own, that could only mean… 

Keith had been on that rescue mission.

“Enough,” Torvik orders, and Nox gives him that same pouting glare Lance observed earlier, apparently a default expression for the galran. 

Nox might have been telling him these things in order to hurt him, but Lance now feels reassured that his friends would find him. Keith, he knows, would never give up on one of his friends. Right? Lance really hopes it isn’t just Shiro that Keith is willing to look for, even months after, though he definitely does not want to be stuck as a prisoner here for that long. Then again…

All his anxieties from before suddenly come rushing back in waves. What if he really is the easily replaceable one? If Keith is really back and piloting Red, then that means she chose him again, and they don’t really have a need for Lance anymore. Would they still come, or would Voltron take priority over his life?

Lance remembers the mission Keith had been about to leave for when they last spoke. Had they managed to contact him before he left? There are too many contradicting questions and Lance’s head is beginning to hurt. 

But…

The idea that Keith might have ditched his super important Blade mission just for him crosses his mind and a bubbly feeling fills Lance’s chest.


End file.
